Indoor Photos - Pros and Cons

It's not beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Honestly, I'm not mad. I don't like snow. I don't like to be cold. I also don't like that I can't take nice photos outside!

We are here in Pennsylvania playing back and forth with mother nature just awaiting a sudden blizzard again. One day we are below freezing the next day we are in the 60s and wearing hoodies.

Getting good photos of products and pattern testings can be difficult. Especially when working with deadlines! We tried some cutesy Target photos and I was surprised that they weren't too bad. Overall, it still isn't the ideal option because the lighting is horrible and people can get annoyed if you're in the way but it wasn't too bad.

To start, I fully admit that I bribed my child with hot cocoa.

Before editing the lighting was very harsh but not so bad that I couldn't work with it. Some areas of the store we quickly realized weren't going to work out as well as others.

The toy aisles were darker and more distracting for Peyton. As you can see, she was a touch too excited about all the toys and the shelves were a mess due to the upcoming holiday. Ultimately, the photos were too dark and she was too bouncy for any photos to use for marketing.

We also tried the holiday section. The lighting was much better and the sparkle was beautiful but the area was far too busy (even for a Tuesday afternoon) to be out of the way. Also, my child is like me and can NOT resist the urge to touch every shiny thing in sight.

Finally, we found a good spot. The lights were just above us so the shadows were minimal, the lights weren't blown or burnt out, and there was very little foot traffic.

The photos needed some editing but more for personal taste than absolute necessity. When it begins to look like Christmas, we know one place to go to get indoor photos in a bind!

Before

After

Pros: we aren't cold - we have an excuse to get Starbucks - deadlines are met - free backdrops

Cons: we were in the way a few times - we both got distracted easily - bad lighting